Through the Health Care System: Helping your elderly loved one navigate their changing health.: A Guide for Families and Friends (Skilled Nursing Facility Toolkit Book 14)

A short and sweet, easy-to-read guide that emphasizes avoiding re-hospitalization, LEVELS of CARE in the community, and the power of engaging with your primary care physician or PCP.As individuals age, health becomes more complex with multiple co-morbidities, multiple disease processes at play often create the perfect storm of health events.Preventative medicine is key, as simple having your regularly scheduled visits with your primary doctor who then extends their arms in the community as needed to provide all those necessary referals as you age to cardiologists, pulmonologists, urologists, and so forth.Provides a clear review of levels of care in the community, with levels outlined in a simple format.From independent living with added services, caregivers in the home, to what assisted living facility levels look like, to 24-hour care in skilled nursing, 5 levels. Skilled nursing as highest acuity below the hospital. Chances are that your elderly loved one or parent is somewhere on this spectrum of care levels. Honoring their individuality and promoting safe choice is critical.Patient choice and sense of autonomy as optimal goal for quality of life, with safety at the forefront.This guide is intended for adult sons and daughters of their aging parent retain either staying in their home safely or identify what level of care is optimal in the community. Review of what a person's abilities look like at each level, which helps patients and families understand their options for meeting specific care needs. Key strategies reviewed to prevent future rehospitalization including engaging with a primary care physician, medication management at home, whether your loved one can manage their medications independently or not, needing assistance with ADLs or activities of daily living. Focus on preventative medicine. Read more